Alternate Earths 3, What Worlds? (hypothetical)

Glamourweaver · 03-27-2006, 12:58 AM

So, if GURPS released an Alternate Earths 3 book, what 6 alternate Earths would you like to see given in-depth coverage?

My ideas:

- Haussman 2: mentioned only in passing in the opening fiction to "Infinite Worlds" this world, with its ornothopters, makes me think of romantic feudalism & pulp sky pirates. I'd like to see it fleshed out.

- Centrum Beta: We know alot about the Centrum today, its operations, & its philosophy, but not alot about its culture & society before the Last War (other than that there was a global Franco-English Empire). I think some depth on Centrum's only known Echo would be nice.

- Azoth 7: I'd love some more details here

- Armada 2: Fascinating world that could be even better fleshed out, with focus on the extended life of swashbuckling piracy & perhaps the Spanish Inquisition's expansion across most of Europe & the New World (I'd imagine upon the successful conquering of England in 1588, the Inquisition would be the ones charged with converting them back to Catholicism)... that could be the reason WHY the world isn't as advanced in the 19th Century present of Armada 2 as in Homeline's history, the Inquisition stiffled the Enlightenment!

- Nergal: fantastic setting

- I'd think for the 6th World it should be one we haven't heard of before... the two ideas that leap to my mind is a world where Guy Fawkes succeded in blowing up Parliment, unintentionally birthing the philosophy of Anarchism far earlier & leading to global rebellions & revolutions against the concept of government; or a world where Alexander the Great was killed on the field of battle & Persia conquered Hellenistic civilization leading to a very different course for Western history.

vitruvian · 03-27-2006, 08:49 AM

Quote:

- I'd think for the 6th World it should be one we haven't heard of before... the two ideas that leap to my mind is a world where Guy Fawkes succeded in blowing up Parliment, unintentionally birthing the philosophy of Anarchism far earlier & leading to global rebellions & revolutions against the concept of government;

Or one where the Putney Debates went slightly differently, Cromwell found the Levellers' position more convincing, and England ended up with a republican form of government with the House of Commons the primary force in government and, if not universal manhood suffrage, suffrage for even petty landholders and all veterans of military service. If the new governmental structure proved stable, the same principles eventually get extended even to the colonies, resulting in a very different world.

Mgellis · 03-27-2006, 09:09 AM

Cyrano, the timeline where Louis d'Antares is from.

Also, they could include a section on truly strange things that show up in the Infinite Worlds, like the Unidentified Futuristic Beings.

Mark

tratclif · 03-27-2006, 09:09 AM

The Powers That Be have indicated that Alternate Earths style products are more likely to be single-world e23 products, but let's not let that spoil the fun.

So, picking a list of six...

One thing I've been waiting for is Cyrano from the iconic characters section in Basic. The Three Musketeers -- on Mars, with force swords and the Jedis played by the Jesuits. Ken Hite has said this is written up to some extent, it just got cut from IW.

A clever pure historical. One thing I really liked about the first AE was how they put some new twists on "Confederacy wins the American Civil War" and "Rome survives to modern times". Probably one of the Bonaparte worlds, since that's one of the more popular themes that hasn't been written up for GURPS

I've read criticism that there hasn't been a good "Britain dominates the World" line yet. Cornwallis from AE 2 is a dystopia, and those done as Pyramid articles have been criticized for having too many American stereotypes. Phil Masters dis some work on Britannica-6 (steampunk, but instead of Victorian bugeois stuffiness we have Georgian aristocratic wildness) for a convention session, we can dream that he'd write it up for a campaign setting.

I agree that Azoth-7 would be fun, but I'm not sure you could fit all the alchemical technology into a writeup. Still would like to see it.

I'm not sure I'd want a whole write up on just Centrum Beta, but some people like Centrum more than Infinity. We could use a world or worlds on the Centrum side of the Quanta that Infinity can't get to.

Another vague idea, a secret-magic world that the Cabal is trying to infiltrate. Intra-Cabal infighting, and I-cops trying to figure out what to do.

~~Tom Kalbfus~~ · 03-27-2006, 10:34 AM

Britian Rules the World is easy. The spark which lit the fire of American Revolution was the tea tax and the British reaction to the dumping of tea in Boston Harbor. If the British decided not to close down Boston and instead sought to reach an accomodation with the colonies, then history might have been different.
I think a War Between the State/World War II alternate might be interesting with the Confederates taking the place of Nazi Germany.
One alternate might be called The High Frontier, basically you take the stuff about space travel from Trans-human space, but you leave out the transhuman part of it and you set the date at the present. A different space shuttle was built that really did work as O'Neill had envisioned it would. Its a two-stage shuttle with the bottom stage being a winged glider and the top stage also a winged glider, both land on a runway when their jobs are done. Also in this world the Communist revolution in China Failed Mao was imprisoned, and this lead to a rapidly industrializing China in the 1970s under the nationalist leadership that governed Taiwan in our history. The effect is that the China oil sponge began its work early, and soaked up the oil from the Middle East in the 1970s and 1980s causing a sustained oil shortage that brought the economic impetus for building Solar Power Satellites in Geosynchronious Orbit. A Massive Government/Private partnership was organized under the Nixon Administration , and later under the Agnew Administration (1977 - 1981) This culminated in the sucessful launch of the US space shuttle, no expense was spared in producing this 2 stage orbiter and it really worked cheaply and efficiently. Watergate never happened, the Vietnam war was successfully concluded and the House and Senate were under Republican control at the beginning of the 1980s. These were moderate Nixonian Republicans rather than the Newt Gingrich variety. A national Heath care plan was devised and the economy is somewhat stagnant due to high Federal taxes and the high price of oil, the solution to all of this was of course seen in the construction of these giant Solar Power satellites, and of course the Soviet Union is still around. The high price of oil has kept them afloat though the 1990s and into the 21st century, but now the energy beamed down from space from the SPSs is starting to bite into the USSRs exports, the Communist Government does not like this outcome very much, they have focused up until this time on colonizing Mars, while the US and its allies have begun building L5 colonies and a Moonbase with mass driver to fling materials for the construction of space habitats and Solar power satellites.

Fionn The Otaku · 03-27-2006, 03:31 PM

I think the alternate Middle ages of Britannica-7 deserve more attention as do the Steampunk worlds Presented in GURPS Steam Punk.

Fabricati · 03-27-2006, 03:44 PM

I'll third Cyrano- it sounds like a lot of fun.

Hmm... some other worlds?

Well, I'd like to work with Legend Parallels, but really, they're not that hard to build and toy with- in short, they're probably not worth the print space, especially as a lot of them- and some of the really fun ones- would get a big, fat "CLOSED OFF" sign on them. Though first contact with "Kirby-1" would be... interesting, to say the least.

I like that Persian one- again, it sounds like a lot of fun.

More information on neat stuff you can do with TDB's.

Desmosthenes-1, or whatever that one was where the Alexandian Empire didn't break up and eventually spawned C31.

DryaUnda · 03-27-2006, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glamourweaver

[A] world where Guy Fawkes succeded in blowing up Parliment, unintentionally birthing the philosophy of Anarchism far earlier & leading to global rebellions & revolutions against the concept of government; or a world where Alexander the Great was killed on the field of battle & Persia conquered Hellenistic civilization leading to a very different course for Western history.

Personally, I like both.

Even more personally, I'm curious to see a writeup of Lenin-2 (Xing-La's world). In a Pyramid chat a while back, Ken said that he also had a world titled "Transhuman" (that got cut out) which I'd also like to see.

On a personally personal level, I've been curious as to what would happen if Theodore Roosevelt was killed on San Juan hill. Apart from that one reply in my webjournal, and the possibility of an effective Hoover presidency, I haven't given that idea much development.

Rowan · 03-27-2006, 07:51 PM

I should very much like to see Nergal, and Lenin-2, cheifly among my own interests, placed somewhere within this hypothetical.

Furthermore, I should very much enjoy seeing such worlds placed in singular worldbook formats. I believe such a product would be well received by the community. ^_^

Oh, DryaUnda, I took some time to look at your quandry regarding the divergence point centering around T. Roosevelt, and if you will please pardon any ignorance I might display in such a complex question, have you considered what ramifications the absence of the aforementioned might have on certian areas of New York in that regard.

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h959.html

Quote:

Capitalizing on his popularity, Roosevelt ran for governor of New York. Republican leaders knew of his reform tendencies, but pushed his nomination as a means to overcome a recent history of corruption on the state level. In November 1898, Roosevelt was elected by a narrow margin. He showed typical vigor in Albany and, as feared, alienated political boss Thomas Platt by pushing through a new tax on corporate franchises. His efforts at moderate reforms included a number of conservation measures and improvements in public education.

Unfortunately. I have no idea whom Roosevelt ran against for that election, nor what his opponents political tastes were on the above. I am unsure if such changes (though admittedly minor) would have taken place. Perhaps later rather than sooner? =?

Glamourweaver · 03-27-2006, 09:21 PM

I'd imagine in a world without Teddy Roosevelt's trust busting & strengthened foreign policy the Great Depression would have happened alot sooner... possibly coinciding with a total isolationist response to WW1...

No peaceful resolution to Russo-Japanese War?

Communist Revolution in the US?

Anarchist Revolution in the US?

Central Powers victorious in Europe?

Perhaps the US & German Empire are in a state of Cold War between anarchistic freedom & imperial order... while Great Brittain, saddled with a huge war debt has fallen to Fascism & extremist isolationism.

Interesting playground for the major Crosstime factions. The Centrum torn between their cultural ties to Britain & their philosophical ties to the German Empire, while Reich-5 faces the exactly inverted problem. Infinity tries to build some semblance of law in the socio-anarchistic federations that make up the US, but support their interest over those of the German Empire. Meanwhile all these groups play out their differences in the never ending brutal proxy war that was once known as "Spain".

03-27-2006, 12:58 AM	#1
Glamourweaver Join Date: Feb 2005	Alternate Earths 3, What Worlds? (hypothetical) So, if GURPS released an Alternate Earths 3 book, what 6 alternate Earths would you like to see given in-depth coverage? My ideas: - Haussman 2: mentioned only in passing in the opening fiction to "Infinite Worlds" this world, with its ornothopters, makes me think of romantic feudalism & pulp sky pirates. I'd like to see it fleshed out. - Centrum Beta: We know alot about the Centrum today, its operations, & its philosophy, but not alot about its culture & society before the Last War (other than that there was a global Franco-English Empire). I think some depth on Centrum's only known Echo would be nice. - Azoth 7: I'd love some more details here - Armada 2: Fascinating world that could be even better fleshed out, with focus on the extended life of swashbuckling piracy & perhaps the Spanish Inquisition's expansion across most of Europe & the New World (I'd imagine upon the successful conquering of England in 1588, the Inquisition would be the ones charged with converting them back to Catholicism)... that could be the reason WHY the world isn't as advanced in the 19th Century present of Armada 2 as in Homeline's history, the Inquisition stiffled the Enlightenment! - Nergal: fantastic setting - I'd think for the 6th World it should be one we haven't heard of before... the two ideas that leap to my mind is a world where Guy Fawkes succeded in blowing up Parliment, unintentionally birthing the philosophy of Anarchism far earlier & leading to global rebellions & revolutions against the concept of government; or a world where Alexander the Great was killed on the field of battle & Persia conquered Hellenistic civilization leading to a very different course for Western history.

03-27-2006, 09:09 AM	#3
Mgellis Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Flushing, Michigan	Re: Alternate Earths 3, What Worlds? (hypothetical) Cyrano, the timeline where Louis d'Antares is from. Also, they could include a section on truly strange things that show up in the Infinite Worlds, like the Unidentified Futuristic Beings. Mark

03-27-2006, 09:09 AM	#4
tratclif Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Chillicothe, OH	Re: Alternate Earths 3, What Worlds? (hypothetical) The Powers That Be have indicated that Alternate Earths style products are more likely to be single-world e23 products, but let's not let that spoil the fun. So, picking a list of six... One thing I've been waiting for is Cyrano from the iconic characters section in Basic. The Three Musketeers -- on Mars, with force swords and the Jedis played by the Jesuits. Ken Hite has said this is written up to some extent, it just got cut from IW. A clever pure historical. One thing I really liked about the first AE was how they put some new twists on "Confederacy wins the American Civil War" and "Rome survives to modern times". Probably one of the Bonaparte worlds, since that's one of the more popular themes that hasn't been written up for GURPS I've read criticism that there hasn't been a good "Britain dominates the World" line yet. Cornwallis from AE 2 is a dystopia, and those done as Pyramid articles have been criticized for having too many American stereotypes. Phil Masters dis some work on Britannica-6 (steampunk, but instead of Victorian bugeois stuffiness we have Georgian aristocratic wildness) for a convention session, we can dream that he'd write it up for a campaign setting. I agree that Azoth-7 would be fun, but I'm not sure you could fit all the alchemical technology into a writeup. Still would like to see it. I'm not sure I'd want a whole write up on just Centrum Beta, but some people like Centrum more than Infinity. We could use a world or worlds on the Centrum side of the Quanta that Infinity can't get to. Another vague idea, a secret-magic world that the Cabal is trying to infiltrate. Intra-Cabal infighting, and I-cops trying to figure out what to do.

03-27-2006, 10:34 AM	#5
~~Tom Kalbfus~~ Banned Join Date: Dec 2005	Re: Alternate Earths 3, What Worlds? (hypothetical) Britian Rules the World is easy. The spark which lit the fire of American Revolution was the tea tax and the British reaction to the dumping of tea in Boston Harbor. If the British decided not to close down Boston and instead sought to reach an accomodation with the colonies, then history might have been different. I think a War Between the State/World War II alternate might be interesting with the Confederates taking the place of Nazi Germany. One alternate might be called The High Frontier, basically you take the stuff about space travel from Trans-human space, but you leave out the transhuman part of it and you set the date at the present. A different space shuttle was built that really did work as O'Neill had envisioned it would. Its a two-stage shuttle with the bottom stage being a winged glider and the top stage also a winged glider, both land on a runway when their jobs are done. Also in this world the Communist revolution in China Failed Mao was imprisoned, and this lead to a rapidly industrializing China in the 1970s under the nationalist leadership that governed Taiwan in our history. The effect is that the China oil sponge began its work early, and soaked up the oil from the Middle East in the 1970s and 1980s causing a sustained oil shortage that brought the economic impetus for building Solar Power Satellites in Geosynchronious Orbit. A Massive Government/Private partnership was organized under the Nixon Administration , and later under the Agnew Administration (1977 - 1981) This culminated in the sucessful launch of the US space shuttle, no expense was spared in producing this 2 stage orbiter and it really worked cheaply and efficiently. Watergate never happened, the Vietnam war was successfully concluded and the House and Senate were under Republican control at the beginning of the 1980s. These were moderate Nixonian Republicans rather than the Newt Gingrich variety. A national Heath care plan was devised and the economy is somewhat stagnant due to high Federal taxes and the high price of oil, the solution to all of this was of course seen in the construction of these giant Solar Power satellites, and of course the Soviet Union is still around. The high price of oil has kept them afloat though the 1990s and into the 21st century, but now the energy beamed down from space from the SPSs is starting to bite into the USSRs exports, the Communist Government does not like this outcome very much, they have focused up until this time on colonizing Mars, while the US and its allies have begun building L5 colonies and a Moonbase with mass driver to fling materials for the construction of space habitats and Solar power satellites. Last edited by Tom Kalbfus; 03-27-2006 at 11:03 AM.

03-27-2006, 03:31 PM	#6
Fionn The Otaku Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Middletown, CT.	Re: Alternate Earths 3, What Worlds? (hypothetical) I think the alternate Middle ages of Britannica-7 deserve more attention as do the Steampunk worlds Presented in GURPS Steam Punk.

03-27-2006, 03:44 PM	#7
Fabricati Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: North Hollywood, CA	Re: Alternate Earths 3, What Worlds? (hypothetical) I'll third Cyrano- it sounds like a lot of fun. Hmm... some other worlds? Well, I'd like to work with Legend Parallels, but really, they're not that hard to build and toy with- in short, they're probably not worth the print space, especially as a lot of them- and some of the really fun ones- would get a big, fat "CLOSED OFF" sign on them. Though first contact with "Kirby-1" would be... interesting, to say the least. I like that Persian one- again, it sounds like a lot of fun. More information on neat stuff you can do with TDB's. Desmosthenes-1, or whatever that one was where the Alexandian Empire didn't break up and eventually spawned C31. __________________ The easiest way to destroy a utopia is to introduce it to humanity.

03-27-2006, 09:21 PM	#10
Glamourweaver Join Date: Feb 2005	Re: Alternate Earths 3, What Worlds? (hypothetical) I'd imagine in a world without Teddy Roosevelt's trust busting & strengthened foreign policy the Great Depression would have happened alot sooner... possibly coinciding with a total isolationist response to WW1... No peaceful resolution to Russo-Japanese War? Communist Revolution in the US? Anarchist Revolution in the US? Central Powers victorious in Europe? Perhaps the US & German Empire are in a state of Cold War between anarchistic freedom & imperial order... while Great Brittain, saddled with a huge war debt has fallen to Fascism & extremist isolationism. Interesting playground for the major Crosstime factions. The Centrum torn between their cultural ties to Britain & their philosophical ties to the German Empire, while Reich-5 faces the exactly inverted problem. Infinity tries to build some semblance of law in the socio-anarchistic federations that make up the US, but support their interest over those of the German Empire. Meanwhile all these groups play out their differences in the never ending brutal proxy war that was once known as "Spain".